DGM01 Kit Introduction

The DGM01 Kit is an easy and quick-to-learn minimal unit for driving a nixie tube. It includes a base and a DGM01 nixie tube. The layout is shown below.

Short Tutorial

Layout

On the hardware side, the DGM01 kit is powered by 5V USB and includes a clock chip, an ESP32C3 module, a boost module, a USB downloading circuit, and a nixie tube driving circuit. Software-wise, the DGM01 kit supports the Arduino framework and MicroPython framework, it can also use the native framework for ESP32. We provide a variety of example routines for reference, making it very easy to learn and get started.

Hardware

  • ESP32 Module

    We use the ESP32C3 as the main control chip, and the corresponding pin assignments are above.

  • Boost Module

    We have developed our own boost circuit solution, which can generate the 170V voltage required by the nixie tube with 5V USB power supply. The schematic of the circuit is as shown above.

  • Driver

    In our nixie tube driving solution, we employ high-voltage transistors for activation. The method is detailed as follows: each digit is individually controlled by an IO port, allowing us to selectively illuminate or extinguish each one. Moreover, if brightness adjustment is required, we utilize Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) technology, which is based on the principle of area equivalence. This PWM control can also be easily implemented in software, with detailed methods provided in the Arduino code.

  • Clock Module

    For the clock module, we utilize a temperature-compensated clock chip, such as the DS3231 or RX8025T. Due to factors related to the cost and size of the DS3231, we have opted for the RX8025T. The driving code for this is also readily available.

Software

  • You can experiment with the kit using Arduino or MicroPython. We have provided code for the nixie tube driver (with brightness control for Arduino), along with driver code for BLE, Wi-Fi, and the RX8025T. More details can be found on our github (https://github.com/iNixie-Lab/Kit-Dev).